After August, Yang Tinghe also traveled to Huai'an, Yangzhou and other places. He was accompanied by a doctor named Zhu Yingxin from the Shaofu. According to the grain purchase contract, the emperor's internal funds of 200,000 taels of silver were allocated to Yang Tinghe, and Yang Tinghe purchased grain from the Qingzhengyuan grain merchant in Shaofu, and then provided relief to salt farm and stove households in various areas of the Huaihe River.
The figure of two hundred thousand was not Zhu Houzhao's original plan. He was willing to spend money, but later found that he did not need to spend as much as seven or eight hundred thousand taels, so he allocated the money according to the actual situation.
At this time, the market price in the capital's territory was that one stone of grain cost approximately 0.4 taels of silver. 200,000 taels of silver could buy approximately 500,000 stone of grain, which was equivalent to approximately 75 million catties of grain. This amount is enough to provide relief to tens of thousands of people. An adult consumes about 2 kilograms of rice a day.
So in theory, this money can allow these kitchen households to eat well. Maybe 100,000 taels is enough.
But in fact, money will always be withheld when allocating money, not at the level of Yang Tinghe and the Shaofu, but at the lower level. With so many salt farms and so many people, Yang Tinghe cannot go and give out rice one by one, so it is still You have to rely on those petty officials. We can only try to be more careful and reduce such losses.
In addition, physical transactions are also subject to many environmental restrictions.
Although under the careful management of the court in the past few years, it is still possible to collect 500,000 shi of food in an emergency.
But the problem is transportation!
At this time, each canal can transport 400 shi of grain. If 500,000 shi of grain were transported at one time, 1,250 ships would need to be temporarily mobilized!
The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is extremely busy every day, and transporting grain northward is also a national policy of great importance. Of course, there is no shortage of ships, but suddenly it is said that 1,250 ships must be found, unless there is a war, and they are recruited everywhere.
Even if Qing Zhengyuan, as the royal grain merchant, has developed extremely rapidly in the past two years, it is still not easy.
Because no one dares to delay water transportation.
In the end, he overcame multiple difficulties and started lucking out with 100,000 stones.
So we urgently contacted, dispatched, and transported food...
The first batch of grain finally hit the road in early August.
There are more than 30 salt fields and more than 50,000 kitchen households... The imperial court suddenly removed the transportation department, and there was inevitably some chaos in the salt fields. Under the hood, the sales of surplus salt for kitchen households suddenly became tight.
The imperial court has killed so many people, even the most courageous people will restrain themselves.
Nowadays, surplus salt is not only difficult to sell, but the price is also extremely low.
Zhao Shen was looking forward to the stars and the moon, and finally Yang Tinghe came.
He was a minister of the Ministry of Justice, and suddenly he was appointed as the censor of the salt patrol. Forget it, this happened to happen, so I really thought highly of him.
But after a few words with Yang Tinghe, Zhao Shen still felt that he was not optimistic.
"Nowadays, people are in a state of mind in salt farms everywhere. I have personally seen the lives of kitchen households. Salt is the top priority for kitchen workers. If you don't fry salt, you will have nothing to do. If you don't sell salt, you will suffer. Hungry and cold. It has been nearly two months since I took office as the transfer envoy and went north to the capital. Many kitchen households have virtually no food. The 100,000 shi of food must be provided as soon as possible, otherwise the Lianghuai region will not be in chaos today and will not be in chaos tomorrow. chaos!"
"Besides, what is the explanation behind the imperial court's removal of the Secretary of Transportation? During the chaos, rumors spread, and no ideas came out. How can we guarantee the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver for this year's Lianghuai Salt Course?"
Yang Tinghe didn't talk nonsense to him, "Zhao Yansi, there are too many questions and I don't have time to answer them all. Yang left Beijing this time with the sacred order to provide relief to the salt farm households. As you said, let these people live first." The most important thing at the moment. Yang is the imperial envoy and you are the Salt Secretary. The two of us jointly signed an order for thirty salt field ambassadors to go to Yangzhou immediately to collect food!"
"Let them receive food?" Zhao Shen was very doubtful.
"You can only order them at this time!" Of course Yang Tinghe understood what he meant, "Your salt patrol censor's office is empty. Even if Yang, the imperial envoy, brings 30 people, they don't even know where the salt field is! Without relying on everywhere Who can the ambassador of the salt field rely on? In urgent matters, we must obey the authority. At this time, the court's thoughts and His Majesty's thoughts are to give these kitchen households a way to survive! Everything else is put aside for the time being!"
Because the reality is always so helpless, the main contradiction must be resolved first.
Just like transporting grain,
500,000 shi of food is so shocking to say.
But I really thought that as soon as the emperor shouted in the Forbidden City, tens of thousands of people would be fed the next day.
Zhao Shen naturally knew the importance. He knew after a moment's thought that to accomplish this, he could only rely on the salt officials of these salt fields.
"Okay! Let Zhao write it."
Yang Tinghe straightened his figure, cupped his hands and said, "Zhao Yansi is righteous."
"It is the court and His Majesty who are righteous. After all, these grains belong to the Emperor."
There are not many polite words to say, and this is not the time to say them.
Yang Tinghe then suggested: "Rumors were spreading just now when the Salt Division said that there was a big chaos. Therefore, it is best to do it with a big fanfare to help the kitchen households. Although the imperial envoy has a big name, if something like this happened to the Transportation Division, everyone is paying attention now. It’s still Yansi’s place.”
"Zhao understands that in the name of the Salt Division, he sent officials to the Huaihe and Huaihe areas to tell the facts about the court's relief efforts, which at least stabilized the hearts of tens of thousands of people and the hearts of salt merchants."
Zhao Shen is still very wise.
This is how Yang Tinghe feels.
In fact, the officials promoted by the emperor later were more flexible and capable. Those who were too pedantic and rigid were really not suitable to work under Zhu Houzhao. He felt uncomfortable, and so did the emperor.
After the conversation became more and more enjoyable, the strangeness in Yang Tinghe's heart gradually disappeared. Especially at this time, the overall situation was quite tense and the problem required more pragmatism, so he discussed several solutions in succession.
In the end, the main focus is to stabilize the overall situation, rescue the people, and restore confidence.
Zhao Shen is particularly impressed by this renewed confidence.
Yang Tinghe said: "The imperial court arrested many salt merchants, but His Majesty never refused to allow salt merchants to do business. Now that so many people have died, private salt merchants are not only worried about the salt affairs in the Huaihe and Huaihe areas, but also fear that other transportation departments will The salt industry of the Lianghuai River will also be affected. This is not in line with His Majesty’s wishes. If Zhao Yansi wants to do things better, he must eventually put the Lianghuai Salt Industry on the right track, and the connotation of the right track is to focus on Boost business confidence."
In this way, Zhao Shen suddenly realized. He originally knew how to investigate cases, but in terms of practical government affairs, he still fell behind Yang Tinghe.
So he humbly asked for advice, "Fortunately, Your Majesty sent Mr. Yang Jie, otherwise I would have delayed important events!"
"You're welcome. Yan Si, if there is no problem with the ones just now, why don't we deal with them as soon as possible?"
"good!"
In this way, the Salt Patrol Censor actually took the operation and control of the Lianghuai Salt Industry into his hands. Within ten days, various official opinions came out frequently, including the allocation of grain, the disposal of surplus salt, the production of salt fields... ...Even if confidence has not been fully restored, at least it must be restored through decrees.
Yang Tinghe said it right, salt is the same as food, there is no harm in having more of it!
These are Zhao Shen's jobs. Another convenience of Yang Tinghe's status as an imperial envoy is that he can contact local officials in various prefectures, states, and counties.
He wanted to buy grain locally to collect the remaining 400,000 shi, but if that didn't work, he would go to Yingtian Mansion and Suzhou Mansion to buy grain, not necessarily the capital, right?
Yang Tinghe's series of responses and disposals opened Zhao Shen's eyes.
After working hard for many days, when the two of them had some free time, Zhao Shen couldn't help but praise him.
"I had heard before that His Majesty was very fond of Mr. Yang Jie when he was still in the East Palace. When I met him this time, it turned out that he was a worthy man despite his great reputation."
Yang Tinghe is not too arrogant. He is inferior to several people in the capital in terms of holy favor.
"My Majesty was not like this at first. In fact, it was also His Majesty's intention. The atmosphere in the court has changed in the past few years, and practice has gradually come first. This is not something that suddenly appeared in the first year of Zhengde, but is the result of His Majesty's planning for several years. . His Majesty often said that without training in local government affairs, there is actually doubt about an official’s ability.”
Zhao Shen entered Beijing not very early, and Yang Tinghe's words cleared up his doubts. Only now did he understand that the emperor had been preparing for this for a long time, and the emperor's wise appearance also appeared in his mind, and he was even more trembling in his heart.
"The Ming Dynasty is so lucky to have the Holy Emperor in court!"
(End of chapter)
